We have the most boring plain dishes ever. And I'm ready for a change. *Cue the paintbrushes and gold paint!* Here we come... again. This time, I got our hands around a mug (literally) since the temperatures are cooling off and hot tea is a ritual in the Gordon household. My hands are always freezing and looking at a boring white mug will no longer satisfy me, not since I've seen how easy it is to gild anything from Oreos to signs to notebooks. I wanted a dishwasher safe striped mug with that was easy to make and definitely not something that required any freehanded script. {You'd understand if you'd seen my handwriting.} Ok, let's get gilding!

Step 1: Arrange your tape in a pattern for your stripes. Keep in mind that your stripes may not end up perfect but we happen to embrace imperfections. We wanted our lines to be close together so we kept our tape almost touching at the bottom. This made the paint peel off a little at the bottom when we pulled off the tape, so if I redid it, I'd leave a little more space between at the bottom. Don't worry about the height of the tape at this point. BUT, do leave "drinking room" at the top. While the paint is non-toxic, you probably don't want your lips touching it.

Step 2: Once you have placed your stripes all the way around the cup, place painters tape around the top of the stripes. Be sure it is parallel to the top of the cup. The bottom of the tape will be the top of your golden lines.

Step 3: Using a paintbrush or sponge brush, dab the paint on the mug, making certain to stay inside the outer most tape lines. We applied 3 coats since we needed the coverage, letting each coat dry in-between. However, this made the coats very thick and some peeled up a bit when removing the tape... I'm curious to try another brand of paint with another mug. Yep, we'll be making a set of these since they are so easy!!

Step 4: Once completely dry, remove tape and enjoy! If you plan to dishwash your new gold striped mug, cure in the oven (place in a cold oven, set to 350 and bake for 30 minutes after reaching 350 degrees and remove after oven and mug are cool), or by letting air cure for 21 days. Plus, the mug should be food and drink safe since your mouth will not come in contact with the paint.

That's it, pretty simple and pretty stunning. We'll be back with more ideas to complement the beginning of a mug set! Enjoy!

And once again, we hope you get some holiday inspiration from our FALL FRIENDS. CLICK each PHOTO below for more information on how to create these fun holiday projects!